If you love the feeling when a book makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, then you’re in for a spine-chilling treat to notch up the sensation with the best books like Verity.
BookTok sensation Colleen Hoover went viral for her contemporary romance novel, It Ends With Us. However, with Verity, CoHo has gone in a surprisingly different direction. It is a gripping psychological thriller, filled with dark and maddening plot twists that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Nonetheless, there is no shortage of Colleen-Hoover-type steamy romance with atmospheric and paranormal world building but she doesn’t lean hard on it.
What Verity is About?
Verity, dubbed as one of the best books of Colleen Hoover, revolves around a struggling writer, Lowen Ashleigh, whose mother has just passed away under her care. Eponymous bestselling author, Verity is left incapacitated after an accident; so, her husband hires Lowen to complete the series she was in the midst of writing. While going through Verity Crawford’s extensive notes on her books and characters, she comes across a draft of an autobiography with terrifying secrets that Verity never wanted to see the light of day.
Colleen Hoover, as often with contemporary writers, blurs the genre by borrowing many elements of modern Gothic romance in her psychological mystery thriller that gives a feeling of Jane Eyre or Rebecca revisited — a true delight for the fans of gothic novels.
What’s special about Verity’s latest edition? Is it a sequel?
Verity is a standalone novel and there will be no sequel. Rather, there is a sequel chapter in Verity’s latest version called “collector’s edition”, published on September 27, 2022. The printed gold-foil variant of a book cover features an exclusive new chapter and a letter from the author. You can grab your copy from Amazon or by supporting local bookstore with Bookshop.
RELATED: Verity Sequel Chapter Explained: Was it necessary?
Best Twisty Books Like Verity
To deliver you the list of best books like Verity with plots and twists that evoke the similar psychological thrill and spine-tingling sensation, we (me and my sister) searched through the genre’s most popular titles and legendary writers to roundup the books that come closest to Verity.
A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh
Best known for her paranormal romance novels, Nalini Singh’s A Madness of Sunshine is an atmospheric noir thriller that captures the untamed and wild beauty of New Zealand with her astute and descriptive storytelling.
Set in a remote town, the novel tells the story of Anahera Rawiri, a woman who returns home after burying her husband in London to find herself drawn into a mystery involving the disappearance of a young girl.
Anahera reluctantly partners with Detective Will Gallagher to investigate the case, and they soon uncover dark secrets that have been buried beneath the surface of Golden Cove for decades. As they delve deeper into the mystery, they find themselves drawn into a web of deceit and danger.
If you enjoyed Verity, and are a fan of atmospheric thrillers with complex characters and twisting plots, then this book is for you.
Read Now: Amazon | Bookshop | Free Audible
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Alex Michaelids’ The Silent Patient is the manifestation of an unusual, shocking and eerie calmness of a woman after committing a horrific crime. Full of thrills, artistic metaphor, twists and Greek tragedy, you will struggle to reel back from the mindblowing ending.
Alicia Berenson lives a seemingly enviable life as a famous painter in a London’s most desirable areas. She is happily married to a fashion photographer. However, one night, out of the blue, Alicia shoots her husband five times in the face after he comes home from work and goes silent. The case gains traction from the public, and her artwork soars in popularity meanwhile Ailcia refuses to speak. She is the silent patient, who is transferred to a secure forensic facility, the Grove, away from prying eyes and paparazzi’s spotlight.
A psychotherapist, Theo Faber is hellbent on uncovering Alicia’s motives behind her actions, even if the truth takes him on a spiral and threatens to consume him.
The Silent Patient is a can’t put it down book to read after verity.
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Confessions by Kanae Minato
Japanese author, Kanae Minato is known as “the queen of iyamisu” (eww mystery), a subgenre of mystery fiction which deals with the dark side of human nature. Her debut bestseller, Confessions is a crazy and unique revenge thriller with shocking plot twists, told from alternating points of view.
It is about a teacher, Yuko Moriguchi, who has gone through tragic circumstances, and lives only for her four-year-old child, Manami. However, she resigns after an accident on the school grounds where she teaches, after which she feels she has nothing else to live for.
Before leaving, she addresses her students one last time, and tells them a story that threatens the very foundations of what they knew about two of their peers. By doing so, she sets in motion her plan for revenge. class is dismissed.
Confessions was successfully adopted into a 2010 movie, with the same name.
In a stream of books like verity, it’s a perfect follow-up to notch up the bone-chilling sensation with dark and twisty revenge thriller.
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Alexandra Andrews’s literary prowess shines through in Who Is Maud Dixon?, a beguiling and thought-provoking tale of suspense and psychological intrigue. Like Colleen Hoover’s Verity, this novel takes you on a unique journey, but it stands firmly on its own feet.
Florence Darrow, a disgruntled editorial assistant in her twenties, dreams of becoming a famous author. But the cogs of her destiny spin and she ends up working with Helen, an enigmatic novelist who writes under the pseudonym Maud Dixon.
During a research trip to Morocco, the story takes a thrilling twist: Florence is now faced with an enticing choice to become what she always wanted to: Maud Dixon. As she pursues fame with relentless determination, the lines between reality and illusion blur, and the story becomes even more suspenseful.
Who Is Maud Dixon? delves into themes of power, psychological dynamics, and complex relationships. It’s a literary thriller that will keep you riveted, just like Verity.
Buy Now: Amazon | Bookshop | Free Audible
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
This next book also has a movie adaptation starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck. It is one of the earliest and original modern psychological thriller books that set the trend in motion.
On the morning of their fifth anniversary, Nick Dunne’s wife Amy goes missing. As the police investigate her disappearance, all evidence points towards the husband. Amy’s friends tell the police she was afraid of Nick and what he might do to her and kept secrets from him as well. Nick denies all allegations, but strange searches on his computer suggest otherwise.
Gone keeps you in a constant state of confusion. You never know who to trust, as you itch to find out what really happened to Amy.
Check on: Amazon | Bookshop | Free Audible
The Ghostwriter by A.R. Torre
Although, The Ghostwriter has some obvious parallels with Verity but unspools differently. The book is not a romance but about a best-selling romance author who decides to tell her life story through a ghost-writer. In the words of Alessandra R. Torre, you will feel the love, sweat, and emotions that she put into each chapter.
Four years ago, she lied to the police, to her friends and to her family; it was her best lie yet – and everyone believed her. And why wouldn’t they? She was an expert at telling stories, it’s what made her famous.
She now has one last story to tell; her best one yet, with a jaw-dropping twist the world won’t see coming. A perfectly structured thriller, AR Torre’s fourteenth book offers an incredible read with an exciting plot.
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The Push by Ashley Audrain
The Push is a psychological thriller revolving around family dynamics, and a woman’s experience of motherhood that she had not expected or hoped for.
Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm comforting mother she never had. But as she has her first baby, Violet, Blythe is convinced Her daughter’s behavior is atypical compared to other children, and that something is wrong.
Her husband is sure she is imagining things, and she is just exhausted, nothing else. But this does nothing more than make her question her own sanity and make the readers question how reliable of a narrator she is.
She then has a second child, a boy, Sam; and she has the motherly connection with him that she had always hoped of having with Violet. His elder sister seems to love her little brother as well. One day, however, their life is changed in an instant which forces Blythe to reckon with the truth.
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Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
Jack is a successful, rich lawyer who almost never loses a case. Grace is the perfect housewife who arranges flawless dinner parties, asks the right questions, and gives the perfect answers. The perfect married life. Everyone envies them, everyone wants to be them.
However, nobody really knows Grace. She is always with Jack when she is out in public. She never answers the phone, never goes out to meet anyone, she does not interact with anyone in the absence of Jack.
What really happens when the dinner parties are over? What happens behind closed doors?
This novel will surprise you; it will explore the unseen shocking mechanisms of a seemingly idyllic and perfect married life. One of the best books like Verity to have in must-reads.
Check on: Amazon | Bookshop | Free Audible
Layla by Colleen Hoover
If Colleen Hoover’s writing style left you desperate for more books like Verity than her other thriller novel, Layla is for you. It’s more paranormal, intense and nail-biting than Verity.
Leeds meets Layla and is convinced she is the love of her life, until an unexpected attack lands Layla in the hospital; and, although she does physically recover, she is left with emotional and mental scarring that alters the woman Leeds fell in love with.
In hopes of salvaging his relationship, he takes her on a romantic getaway to the same bed-and-breakfast that they met in for the very first time. However, strange occurrences keep happening and Layla’s behavior gets worse.
There Leeds meets Willow – who is another guest at the B&B – and, helpless, leans on her for comfort. However, helping Willow proves to be a conflict for Layla’s well-being, and he must now make a choice between both.
Check on: Amazon | Bookshop | Free Audible
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
If you loved Verity, but want to ramp up the romance a notch, The Wife Upstairs is waiting for you to catch up. A genre compendium of mystery, suspense, romance and humor through a lens of southern gothic; this novel is compulsive and absolutely thrilling with a modern-day noir twist on Jane Eyre.
New to Alabama, Jane goes from being a dog walker to a live-in relationship with Eddie Rochester, a rich and handsome man who lost his wife in a boating accident and is presumed dead for several months now. With Eddie, she has everything she could ever hope for. Yet, as they both fall for each other, Jane’s thoughts are increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, a wildly successful lifestyle entrepreneur with a rags-to-riches origin story. Something is definitely amiss. Easy to read, this book provides a perfect escape after reading Verity.
Check on: Amazon | Bookshop | Free Audible
The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James
Deliciously atmospheric, this one will literally cause the hair on the back of the neck to stand up. Intense and paranormal, replete with a Cornish setting; The Women in the Mirror is a part historical, part contemporary gothic tale that tests your psychological nerves. Better keep the lights on.
Set in the years after World War II, the story follows a governess who just like Lowen from Verity accepts the job at an isolated manor. As she begins with the role, the family’s goodwill and adoration for her turns into a deceitful hostility. In a fast-forward, present-day parallel story, a descendant of the family seeks to unravel the deep haunting secrets of the manor.
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The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Next on our list of books like Verity, is The Plot, about Jacob Finch Bonner who once was an up-and-coming young novelist, but now he teaches at a third-rate MFA program. He has not published – or written – a good book in a few years.
Evan Parker, Jacob’s most arrogant student, has a book in progress with a fantastic plot and says he does not need Jake’s help, but dies before the book is completed. Jacob decides to take the unfinished book and publish it under his own name. The book is a huge success and, years later, Jake is the one who is enjoying the wealth and fame that he never got on his own.
Until one day, he gets an email that simply says, ‘You are a thief’. Struggling to keep his secret hidden from the world, he learns more about Evan, and discovers various truths that amaze him, and terrify him at the same time.
Check on: Amazon | Bookshop | Free Audible
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca is a modern-classic of gothic novels that has inspired plenty of authors and stories.
This list, about books similar to Verity, would be incomplete without mentioning Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. It has all the eerie atmospheric vibes you might be looking for in a classic psychological thriller.
Widower Maxim de Winter marries the unnamed narrator – who is a shy and self-conscious woman. He takes her to Manderley, where she discovers the influence Rebecca still has over the estate, even a year after her death. This mirrors some resemblances to Verity, wherein Rebecca has already died, and we never meet her in the novel. She is a major character; whereas, Verity is a silent major character in the novel Verity.
The novel keeps you intrigued and reveals important plot points, along the way that you might never have expected. It also has a Netflix adaptation starring Lily James and Armie Hammer.
Check on: Amazon | Bookshop | Free Audible
The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
Last, but not least, we have The Last Mrs. Parrish, which features complex female characters just like Colleen Hoover’s Verity and is also one of Reese Witherspoon’s book club picks.
The novel follows Amber Patterson, who is tired of being the invisible woman in the background. She does not want to be a nobody any longer. She envies the life of Daphne Parrish, who has all the money and power that Amber wants for herself. Daphne and her husband, Jackson, are somewhat of a fairy-tale couple in their town, Bishops Harbor.
Amber finds it easy to manipulate Daphne’s caring personality and get close to her and her family. Not long after, Daphne confides in Amber about everything. She travels with the Parishes, their daughters, and starts getting closer to Jackson. As her plan starts to fall in place, a skeleton from her past threatens to shatter it.
Check on: Amazon | Bookshop | Free Audible
Read more in a dark & twisty stream!
Best books like Verity by Colleen Hoover has come to an end, but we have plenty of other nail-biter recommendation to diversify your psychological thrillers bookshelf.
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